Our Little Secret
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 831a: What happens when Santana's little sister overhears something she wasn't meant to?  follow up to 'Paying Your Dues'


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 39th cycle. Now cycle 40!_

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><p><em><strong>INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - <strong>If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!  
>Go to: <span>gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet<span>_

_** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 40 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about **shift days**, starting in cycle 40!_

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><p><em><strong>This is a shift day [see above].<strong> There will be another upload this afternoon: Tender Love & Care, chapter 5._

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><p><strong>"Our Little Secret"<br>Santana, Rachel, Catalina Lopez (OC)  
>Alternate ending to "Paying Your Dues"<br>(and connections to "My Summer in the Shade") **

**A/N: Big thanks to Liz for translation assistance...**

In some other world, where she wasn't a Cheerio, popular and all that, and where Rachel wasn't so annoying half the time, then maybe… maybe they could have been friends, and this moment would be easier. There were probably a handful who would give her the whole 'if you want to talk' routine, and she would give them some snide comment that said there was zero chance of that happening.

She wanted it to be that way with Rachel, too, hell she expected it. But it wasn't what she felt now. She wasn't sure just what had done it, between Glee Club, and these lessons with her sister… All these weeks, she'd been playing nice with her for Catalina's sake, now it was like some of it had… rubbed off. Now she had to live with the fact she didn't completely hate Rachel Berry and could go so far as to confide in her something like this. In a way she sort of already had, even if she hadn't flat out confirmed a thing, but that wasn't a lot to go on, so she could always step away and bury it again. She'd let Catalina continue her lessons with her but she wouldn't sit on any of it, just drop her off, pick her up… She'd ignore Rachel at school, which already wasn't a major stretch. She could do all that and it would be like nothing had happened, no problem…

Just figuring out this whole contingency plan made her head spin, made it rest heavy on her shoulders and it just became self-evident that all she was doing was running from nothing… There had to be a middle ground in this, and for once she just didn't want to fight anymore.

"I don't… want to talk about it… not now, here. Do you understand that?" she spoke evenly, back still turned halfway to Rachel.

"Absolutely," she promised. "What about… What about Br…"

"Leave her out of this, alright?" That finally made her turn and step toward Rachel, who was startled.

"I-I'm sorry; I didn't mean to…" Santana sighed, closing her eyes.

"Don't, I didn't mean to… Whatever's going on with me, fine. But Brittany's business is her own. Got it?" she looked her square in the eye.

"Got it," Rachel nodded, then tempted a step forward. "Whenever you want, okay?" she swore, and all Santana could think about was not to cry.

"Just… don't make me regret this," she begged. "Because I'm pretty sure I will somehow." Rachel didn't reply with words, but her face said it all.

That was when she'd seen it, seen her, out of the still-open-by-a-crack bathroom door, one eye peering back at her. Catalina… She'd been listening, but for how long?

"There… see?" she told Rachel. "Didn't take long, did it?" Rachel turned and when she saw the nine-year-old she almost gasped. Santana turned back to the door. "Sal afuera mijita…" she spoke softly, countering the confusion she could see in her little sister's face. Catalina emerged, her ballet clothes in the bag on her shoulder and her eyes on her big sister. "Say thank you to Miss Rachel, okay? We have to go," she put her arm around her shoulders.

"Bye…" Catalina nodded to Rachel and then Santana was leading her out of the house and to the car. Neither of them spoke as they got in the front, buckled in… Santana put the key in, they drove the street, but then… She couldn't just leave it like this. Whatever Catalina had or hadn't heard, at this very moment it was turning inside her head unattended. She didn't want her getting the wrong idea about any of it, through her silence or others' words.

She pulled the car over, turned the key and the whole thing fell silent. No one spoke, moved… Santana finally looked over, found Catalina with her head down in the way she knew meant her sister thought she was in trouble.

"I know you must have heard some things back there, things that confused you," Santana started, and Catalina tempted a look.

"You're not mad I peeped?" she asked, and Santana couldn't not smirk.

"No, not mad," she promised, so Catalina turned to her. "Just how much did you hear?"

"I don't know… I wasn't sure what you were talking about, that's why I listened…"

"Did you understand?" Santana asked, searching her features, trying and failing not to worry over what she might find. Instead what she got was the look of someone who had a question to ask but was afraid to offend if she was wrong. She supposed it wasn't unlike her worries, if from the other end of the spectrum. "It's okay, Tali," she smiled.

"You…" Catalina seemed to search for the proper words before finally deciding. "You like girls?" she asked, and Santana slowly nodded. Catalina took a moment to consider this, then looked to her sister again. "Are you going to get in trouble?" she asked, worried.

"In trouble how?"

"At school someone was saying… bad things," she stopped herself repeating, visibly upset by it now.

"Who?" Santana asked, taken aback. "When?"

"I don't know, a few weeks ago, a boy in my class…" she lowered her head for a moment, then looked back to Santana. "So it's not true?"

"Not even a little," she shook her head.

"Why didn't you say before then?" Santana looked at her… good question.

"Took me a while to… understand it for myself, and it was something I had to do before I could ever consider saying anything, you know?" she paused, waiting for a moment, and then Catalina nodded. "Does it freak you out?" That was probably not how she had wanted to word it, but that was how it had come, and for her sister it was right. Again she watched the thoughts play across her sister's face, nine years old and so much like her…

"I don't think so… I don't feel freaked out," she spoke, like she was expecting to pinpoint this emotion her big sister asked after. Santana found this got her laughing.

"Well, good," she nodded, and Catalina looked at her, smiling back. Santana couldn't even explain what it felt like, to be sitting here with her sweet Tali, the truth out and not any sign of all the fears and the horrible ideas of how this moment might play out. She didn't know how much Catalina really understood, but she knew enough to know what it meant for her, and now here they were and the world hadn't ended.

"Do Mom and Dad know?" she asked after a moment, and apparently Catalina had moved right along from discovery to curiosity… Now Santana definitely knew she was alright.

"Well… no," she shook her head. "You can't tell them either. I'll do it, I promise, I just… don't know h… when…" she changed halfway, filing the even harder task of telling them under 'not important now.'

"Do you have a girlfriend?" she went right along, undisturbed, while Santana felt the effects of 'question whiplash.' A loaded question if ever there was one. Catalina knew Brittany, knew her well… Opening up the avenue that Santana was in love with her could have led to the kinds of disasters she couldn't handle.

"N-no, no girlfriend," she declared.

"Oh… okay," Catalina's lack of concern there was almost touching, like she had no worries for her big sister's romantic potential. They had always understood anyone like no other, and here she saw the reach of that connection in its brightest light… It made her eyes water.

"I love you, you know that?" Catalina looked back to her, smiling.

"Love you too, Tana." She laughed, unbuckling her seatbelt so she could reach over and hug her, kissing the side of her head. "Don't cry, okay?"

"Just give me a minute."

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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